Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
Generally, a wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple mobile terminals. Base stations may communicate with mobile terminals on downstream and upstream links. In some cases, wireless communications systems may not utilize portions of the spectrum because the portions are not big enough to fit a standard waveform. New techniques may be developed to utilize these smaller portions of the spectrum. However, if current systems are scaled, there may be additional issues (e.g., time stretching) that arise.